HAYWARD VS. HAYWARD
By Bradford Cummings
There must be something about the last name Hayward. While it’s officially Old English for ‘guardian’, the surnamesake of BP’s CEO and NYRA’s President has melded into something a bit more devious. Guardian of the elitist lifestyle? Guardian of tone deafness? Perhaps it’s guardian from reality? In any event, these two Haywards have been very wayward in their handling of the press recently.
Tony Hayward of BP very famously and regrettably said the following: "I’m sorry. We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I’d like my life back." Now if he had stopped one sentence earlier, there would be no story, just a somewhat innocuous press statement as we continue towards 1,000,000 gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. But people tend to not want to hear about your personal life when your professional endeavors destroy an entire coast.
What I can say about Tony Hayward is he does seem honestly sorry and distraught. He’s apologized for the tasteless comment and unless we find out that he personally swam down to the ocean floor and started the leak, I am willing to give him a hall pass on his statement. All kidding aside, Tony Hayward is about the last person on earth I’d want to be right now. There were times of great pressure being chairman of the Jefferson County GOP. I can only imagine what it’s like to be the leader of the most hated company in the Western World.
But that brings us to the other Hayward…our Hayward whether we like it or not. In a recent Special to ESPNNewYork.com by Sherry Ross, Charles Hayward of NYRA let us know just how hard he had been working. "You have no idea how many trips I made to Albany in the past 60 days," said Hayward. "It’s a good thing I have a home in Saratoga Springs."
Has a more out-of-touch statement ever been made by the leader of a company, especially one that was looking to borrow money from state government? The Thoroughbred world is on fire and Charles Hayward is making a big deal out of having to travel to the state capital from Long Island or Saratoga Springs to do his job. People are being laid off left and right in this industry and yet Mr. Hayward thinks nothing of flaunting his Saratoga home like we should feel relieved that he is at least getting a break. To quote Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler from SNL, REALLY?
Let’s look at how awful his life has been the last two months. Let’s just for argument’s sake say that Hayward was in Albany Monday-Friday and that he drove back to his summer home in Saratoga Springs each day. With 16 weekend days thrown out right from the beginning, our universe has now shrunk to 44 days. Each commute of 40 minutes spans 33.4 miles or a total of 2,939.2 miles over his entire two-month journey. At $3 a gallon, Mr. Hayward would have had to pay $440 in gas , assuming it wasn’t covered for him by NYRA. To put it in perspective, that’s probably not even what most New York racing employees make in a week.
Here are some real world examples: The average Chicago suburb commute is about an hour and fifteen minutes. It takes 30 minutes on a subway to go from Uptown to Midtown Manhattan. In order for me to see Ray’s smiling face, I have to drive an hour and a half from Louisville to Lexington if I catch any of the morning Louisville "rush hour" traffic. And no one has any idea how many meetings it took for Robert Kulina to get the recent Monmouth Park deal done and for good reason. He didn’t talk about it. In other words, welcome to the rest of the world Charles.
But that’s not even touching the real arrogance of his statement. See, thank God for his home in Saratoga Springs or he’d have to make the three hour drive from New York City to the state capitol. Don’t we all feel better that an organization that has had to borrow $25 million from the state of New York, a state government bleeding money itself, is led by a guy with a summer home who still takes a large salary?
Now I am as capitalist as they come. I believe in the accumulation of wealth and personal gain if you put in the effort. But should a man running a quasi-public company experiencing its worst financial deficit be making large six figures while he’s financially stable enough to have two homes in one of the most expensive states in the country? Doesn’t he have a responsibility to the company he runs to do everything he can to cut costs? CEO’s of major financial institutions took salaries of $1 a year to help turn things around after the collapse in 2008. Wouldn’t it make sense for Charles Hayward to offer something similar? New Yorkers should be up in arms.
It’s clearly not been a good couple months for the Hayward name. But at least Tony Hayward has introduced us to the terms tar ball and junk shot. Outside of an ability to beg for government cheese, it’s hard to point to Charles Hayward’s recent positive contributions.
UPDATE: SORRY CHARLIE: CUMMINGS’ MEA CULPA
Copyright © 2010, Ray Paulick
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Tags: Albany, BP, bradford cummings, charles hayward, monmouth park, nyra, Paulick Report, Robert Kulina, saratoga springs, Sherry Ross, Tony Hayward
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Mr. Paulick
Charlie Hayward is an out of touch fool. However for some strange reason, known only to the powers in New York, he continues to survive. What a shame. It is also a very serious matter too because of the disastrous state of the Thoroughbred World and his inept and clearly out of touch leadership.
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I think you are way off base here concerning Charlie Hayward. NYRA would not need a loan from New York State if New York State had followed through on its agreement with NYRA regarding the installation of VLT’s at Aqueduct. Additionally, New York City OTB (New York Government at its best) owes NYRA at least $17 million. Go pick on David Williams and lay off of Charlie. If Charlie ever gets the chance to do his job and he can stop trying to rob Peter to pay Paul, I think you will find out that he cares greatly about our sport and more importantly about the $2 bettors that pay the freight.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:11 pm
The parallel you draw is in a word… Bizarre.
Comparing a comment Charlie Hayward made on ESPNNewYork.com (not that I know anyone on the planet who saw it) about spending a lot of time in Albany, to the handling of the PR for the BP oil spill? I mean, really…
Then to paint him as the villian in the NYRA / NYCOTB / Albany / VLT mess? Pretty unfair and short sighted in my opinion.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:11 pm
.
What a moronic article. I’d like my two minutes back.
Ray, I’m surprised that you put this piece of garbage front and center on your website.
.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:14 pm
A strange world we live in. The 1st Hayward runs a company that provides the greedy with what they require. The customer with its leader Mr Obama now tells BP how naughty they have been. That customer apparently is not at fault???
The second Hayward with all is travelling and fuel requirement obviously needs the first Hayward it would seem.
The blame is always chucked far from the moaner. Heaven forbid that the customer/moaner requirement is ill placed in the first place.
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:00 pm
This is the most useless, out of touch waste of space that I have seen from the Paulick Report. Seriously. This is what you want to report on, Brad? Really?
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Brad
That article was not only pointless, classless, and moronic; it’s a flawed premise and just dead ass wrong. A person with your POV should have better intel and better sense than to publish that crap.
It’s a new low; even for a so-called journalist.
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Professional suicide. Highly likely anyone will ever take Mr. Cummings seriously again. Posted article assumes Mr. Paulick is in agreement? Truly embarrassing.
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Charlie Hayward has done an excellent job of running NYRA; to compare him to Tony Hayward is absurd. To blame him for NYRA’s woes is idiotic and shows a gross misunderstanding of the recent developments involving NY racing. This will be the last article written by Brad Cummings that I will ever read.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:13 pm
You owe Charles Hayward a personal and in-person apology. This article borders on the insane. Did you run this piece by Ray before you decided to upload it to PR? This is absolutely absurd.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Jimmy D.
Yes, I read and approved the piece. I don’t think it does Charles Hayward any good to play the victim in this mess.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Ray, having people who have zero clue on not only what is going on in NY, but on general journalism does nothing but devalue your website. This pathetic excuse of a “blogger” Brad completely disgraced you today and I would serious consider having your name attached to a website which does such lousy writing. As everyone in NY knows, Charlie has the thickest skin, and operates much higher than your counterpart. Unfortuneately Brad proved that some people truly don’t know the details of real issues in NY, sad because KY should, your stallions are made at NYRAs G1 races.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:33 pm
And I forgot one thing, has anyone heard of sarcasim or a joke? It appears some people sadly can’t understand it, in it’s simpliest forms. Poor Charlie should be laughing at you two now. Or perhaps either of you would like to switch places and deal with Albany politics on a daily, or should I say yearly basis. I feel sorry for all of the NY industry leaders as there banging their heads daily.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I understand that Charlie Hayward cares, I know he does, but the fact of the matter is that his just sucking off the NYRA teet…. and isn’t in touch with reality….he inherited a corrupt, bribe run organazation, and it has not changed…the racing is going down hill, and he owns (at least) two homes, and NYRA pays ALL his expenses….. this is a joke, truly…
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
The NYRA ,as we know it, can’t continue to sustain itself. It’s almost like it is waiting for the state to throw up its arms and say “please just take NYCOTB, without the pension obligation, and while you’re at it, why don’t you operate the VLT’s at Belmont, I mean Aqueduct and forget about a Lottery Commission vendor selection.” Charlie and the boys persuaded Spitzer to capitulate and give it the racing franchise, so it would be no surprise if the NYRA wrangled away OTB and the casino as well. C. Hayward and company are good at these type of things. Let’s just hope they have the entire racing and breeding world in focus when they pounce and make their move.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Bradford Cummings. You’re an embarrassment.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:13 pm
I warned this dolt not to mix unrelated political nonsense with horse racing news/commentary.
I guess now he expanded his moronic repertoire to mixing highly charged disasters that affect the entire world with horse racing news/commentary.
I can’t even guess what will be next.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:20 pm
This “article” is just plain wrong on so many levels and an insult to the intelligence of the loyal readers of the Paulick Report. You guys can do better than this.
I’m disappointed by the lack of professionalism…
June 4th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Brad: Right on!!!
June 4th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Yes, Brad, but you’re our embarrassment, and we’re proud of you.
Now, stay out of those grimy NYC OTBs!
June 4th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
And while we’re at it, “Really?” was used to great effect by Richard Dreyfuss in Let It Ride, a film that is now not only timeless, but @ 25 years old.
(And if the screenwriters lifted it from an equally effective film in the 1920s, I wouldn’t be surprised. Cleopatra probably had the same response when M. Anthony dropped in for an unannounced visit while being pursued along the Nile by his one-time cohortal colleagues).
So crediting anyone today with rhetorical originality by citing their “Really” just proves that if anything happened longer than five years ago, it’s a Brand New Thing. To the Amnesiacs.
June 4th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I’m a little uncomfortable with Mr. Cummings piece because I didn’t see any effort to achieve some balance by mentioning Mr. Hayward’s accomplishments at NYRA — assuming there have been some beyond his exposing Mr. Smith’s agenda prior to the franchise renewal.
Mr. Hayward does seem to have a penchant for being associated with bad news for which NYRA seldom seems to take responsibility at any level. However, it does appear that the same level of scrutiny applied to NYRA by the press is not exercised with respect to the State Wagering Board and other state officials making racing-related decisions. Look how long it took once Hayward started publicizing the threat to BEL and SAR for there to be wide agreement that the State government itself had to accept responsibility for the situation.
It would be great PR for NYRA to show that its cost-cutting efforts are on-going while the crisis continues. Can eliminating jobs in lieu of reducing executive pay have other than a negative effect on morale? Is the “new” NYRA board of directors making better decisions than the “old” one?
June 7th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Amazing how out of touch some people are.